A wireless communication system typically includes a base station in wireless communication with a plurality of user devices (which may also be referred to as mobile stations, user equipment, subscriber units, access terminals, terminals, etc.). The base station transmits data to the user devices over a radio frequency (RF) communication channel. The term “downlink” refers to transmission from a base station to a user device, while the term “uplink” refers to transmission from a user device to a base station.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration of standards organizations throughout the world. The goal of 3GPP is to make a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications-2000) standard as defined by the International Telecommunication Union.
Wireless communications systems (e.g., Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA)) usually calculate an estimation of a channel impulse response between the antennas of a user device and the antennas of a base station for coherent receiving. Channel estimation may involve transmitting known reference signals that are multiplexed with the data. Reference signals may include a single frequency and are transmitted over the communication systems for supervisory, control, equalization, continuity, synchronization, etc. Wireless communication systems may include one or more mobile stations and one or more base stations that each transmits a reference signal. In addition to reference signals, data may be transmitted between a base station and a mobile station. Data may be included in one or more frames of varying lengths. The base station and mobile station attempt to achieve synchronization in order to properly receive and transmit the data. Overhead caused by constantly transmitting synchronization information between the base station and mobile station may cause an undue load on a system. As such, benefits may be realized from systems and methods that reduce the transmission overhead caused from transmitting and receiving synchronization information.